10 Ways to Increase Productivity at Home

Do you feel like you are always chasing your tail, never able to get your to-do list done?

Do you feel overwhelmed most of the time?

Your attention is pulled in so many directions and you have a lot of stuff going around in your head.

You may feel like you’re drowning and like you’re failing as a mother. Your chaos is next level.

How can you regain your sanity and eliminate chaos, stress, and overwhelm?

How to eliminate chaos and increase productivity

Being a stay at home mom can be chaotic because you don’t have a schedule forced on you by work.

As a result, life sometimes gets out of hand.

Getting rid of chaos and overwhelm can be a reality, but you’ll have to be intentional about it.

It’s time to take back control of your life!

How to increase productivity at home

There’s lots you can do to regain control of your life, reduce overwhelm, and become more productive.

#1 Spend time with God

This is the best productivity booster ever. As you spend time with God you will become calmer, get more direction, and think more clearly.

You can consult Him about your life and how to be more productive with less stress.

#2 Identify your priorities

Sometimes our real priorities get buried under loads of laundry, a full inbox, moving, renovations, expectations of others, and saying yes to things we shouldn’t say yes to.

Take some time to sort through your priorities and figure out what’s really important to you.

Use this FREE download to help you.

Related: How to prioritise your life

#3 Eliminate non-essentials

Take a good look at the things that are consuming your time and compare them with your list of priorities.

Make a commitment to say yes to your priorities = saying no to things that are taking you away from them.

These could be:

• Social media
• Social activities
• Extracurricular activities
• Being too picky about housecleaning (you don’t have to dust and vacuum every day!)
• Expectations of others
• Church commitments

#4 Use a planner

Once you’ve established your priorities and eliminated non-essentials, plan your life.

30 Minutes spent planning can save you a whole lot of stress and headache.

I plan out my next week on a Friday so that by the time Sunday/Monday comes, I’m ready to go.

Simplify your planning by using the 4 D’s – Do, Delegate, Delay and Delete.

Check out my Ultimate Life Planner for Busy Moms

Here’s what you can use the planner for:

• Create a yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily plan
• Create daily to-do lists
• Set short and long term goals for your home, your kids, your personal growth
• Plan meals
• Track habits
• Reflect on your life so you can make changes
• Track emotions, sleep habits, fitness, and quiet time with God
• Record random thoughts and ideas to help you stay focused
• Create a schedule

Related: Two Morning Routines that Boost Productivity

As you consult your planner daily, ask God what He wants you to do that day. Number your top 3 items and treat them like appointments.

(I realise that as a busy mom chaos sometimes hits – that’s ok. You can revert to your plan once the chaos subsides. But without a plan you’ll definitely not get anything important done.)

Related:10 Best Planning Tips to Increase Productivity

#5 Capture every idea in your head.

Write stuff down – to clear your head and make room for reasonable thinking and focus on any chosen task at the time. It also relieves the stress of trying to remember everything you have to do.

My Life Planner for Busy Moms has a squirrel chart to help you record stuff you need to do sometime and stuff you’d like to do sometime.

(The name comes from being like a squirrel, running around gathering nuts for future use. 🙂 )

#6 Get up earlier

Yeah. I know this can be hard. But I’ve found my best hours are before anyone else gets up. My mind is clear, the house is quiet and I can be really productive.

You may need to go to bed earlier in order to get up earlier… Just sayin’.

#7 Give yourself permission to have a daily rest time

Yes, rest is productive because it allows you to come back at life rested and with energy to tackle a new set of tasks.

Aim to work from rest instead of to rest.

#8 Give each day a theme

Have a cooking day, a cleaning day, and errand day etc. Or you can block schedule and set aside certain hours of every day for cooking, cleaning, doing errands, etc.

Multitasking is going out of fashion. It’s better to give focused attention to one task than to try and do multiple things at once.  

#9 Consult your to do list the night before

Take 5 minutes to review your plan for tomorrow. It makes you feel ahead of yourself instead of constantly behind and under pressure.  

#10 Learn to say no

Give yourself permission to say no to things that will take your time away from what is most important to you.

Ditch the fear of displeasing people, and consult with God about what to say yes to.

Don’t allow the emergency or urgency of others, or guilt, to pressure you into saying yes when you should say no.

Your home life doesn’t have to be chaotic. Make it your career to be efficient and productive at home.

And just a reminder: being productive is not your main goal. The idea is to be efficient so that you have time for what matters most.

Being productive will leave you some free time to do things that make you happy, and motivate you to get things done so you can have time for yourself and the things you love and enjoy.

Take one step at a time. Be patient, but do the little things that will bring change to your life.

Where to you need to start to eliminate chaos and stress and increase your productivity?